2.1 Field
The exemplary, illustrative, technology herein relates to systems, software, and methods for managing the operation of networks composed of various and disparate electronic devices. More particularly, the exemplary, illustrative, technology herein provides systems, software, and methods for automatically configuring and enabling network management software and systems for managing the operation of networks composed of various and disparate electronic devices. The technology herein has applications in the areas of computer science, electronics, and electronic commerce.
2.2 Background
Computer network technology has experienced phenomenal growth over the past two decades, from the esoteric experimental defense-related projects known to only a handful of electronics and military specialists in the 1960s and 1970s, to the epicenter of the so-called dot-com stock market boom of the late 1990s. Today, tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of people over the globe rely on computer networks for their jobs, education, and entertainment. In the industrialized world, access to computer networks appears to be almost ubiquitous. Examples include building control networks for managing a building's internal environment, networks of sensors monitoring air quality, factory floor automation, and combined communications systems combining previously disparate systems.
Not only has the presence of computer networks exploded, but the complexity of these electronic webs has skyrocketed as well. Today, a computer network administrator must simultaneous deal with a myriad of different devices, manufacturers, and protocols in her job function, as well as support the ad-hoc attachment and removal of devices from the network as portable wireless devices automatically attach and detach from the network infrastructure. The devices must be able to communicate properly across the network without interfering with each other. In particular, the administrator must be able to identify warnings and troubleshoot abnormal behaviors on the network and network-attached systems long before any risk that the network as a whole will stop functioning.
Current network management systems are often complex and do not operate well for most users. First, these systems often have onerous requirements. Many require specialized expertise just to install and configure the network management software and additional applications. Others require additional expertise-based configurations of the software and applications to monitor a network, including: complex collections of vendor-specific applications to monitor disparate hardware and software and extensive custom programming to monitor applications.
Second, many management systems only can monitor a limited number of attributes per network connected device, use a single network management protocol, and further do not monitor system, application status, network performance, or quality of service (“QoS”) attributes. Furthermore, many management systems do not cross-correlate between multiple network services and check for discrepancies between network services that provide coordinated service. Moreover, many systems are designed under the presumption that the network infrastructure is always functioning; and therefore may not be reliable when network service interruptions occur.
Third, the day-to-day operation of current network management products requires skilled support staff to configure and maintain the management software and network, including adding and removing devices and device configurations as the network topology changes. Configuration typically requires that the staff manually collect information about network management system applications (and management information base (“MIB”) configurations) used to manage the devices that are part of the network from individual device manufacturers, manually install and configure the software, and then set manually the thresholds for sending alerts. Many network management systems and applications are limited to using a single management protocol, for example, the simple network management protocol (“SNMP”), to collect information from the devices, forcing the users to reconcile SNMP requirements with their management policies. Furthermore, the tools available to accomplish these tasks are primitive, often overloading the operators with excessive reporting responsibilities and preventing the automatic correlation of information about devices present on the network.
For example, limitations in SNMP architecture can force network operators to manage networks of devices from a single management station, or clear the same error reports from multiple terminals. Often, network devices only report their own internal status; but do not provide the operator with critical information on the status of the device's communication with the network, nor do they provide information regarding the status of applications and services operating on the device.
Additionally, current technologies require external applications to manage the resulting workload (e.g., “trouble tickets”), require additional external systems to manage enterprise critical infrastructure such as domain name services (“DNS”), dynamic host configuration protocol (“DHCP”) leases, and digital certificates, and do not provide mechanisms to ensure that these critical infrastructure components are available, up-to-date, and in synchronization. This additional configuration workload limits the usefulness of current network management systems on ad hoc or intermittently connected networks.
Finally, current management systems often are not integrated with network and system security products such as IDS's (Intrusion Detection Systems), audit trails, and log management mechanisms. Many systems also do not integrate easily with enterprise network management policies, including security, configuration management, and other IT-based policies. In addition, current management systems suffer from high false failure reporting rates, wasting network manager time and resources.
Thus, there is an immediate need for network management systems that are more robust, and simpler to install, configure, and maintain. The exemplary, illustrative, technology herein meets these and other similar needs.